Food: Vegetarian@E Hub

My friend recommended this small stall/shop called Yummy Green at E Hub (Downtown East) which sells purely vegetarian food. It's mainly japanese themed and I had the tonkatsu cha udon. Nice!

Tech Speak: Chromium OS

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-google-chrome-os-and-run-on-a-real-computer/

Most of you should have heard that Google Chrome OS has been announced. Nothing's confirmed yet, and I have yet to use it too. But I saw some screen shots, and it's quite pretty.

This link contains a guide to boot your PC using Chromium OS, which is still a relatively young project. It seems that the main issue that Chromium may not like your network adapter. Ooh, a new OS with an attitude. I like.

I'll try it soon, then I'll update here.

Ramblings: I ish goot in moi ang moh

chui noe ur engrish makes moi sick? it ish nt impressive at all. if i hv 2 read engrish rike dis, i will faintz wan.

Pardon, I had to refer to some forum to write like that. Not born with such a talent. Gosh, the headache it gives me.

Event: Gym Is In Session

I went to Safra Yishun's Energy One gym on friday with a friend. Yeah it was paid per entry, $5 plus, silly I know, but I just wanted to try it once. Apparently there's quite a number of facilities there.

Upon entering, the lady gave us 2 towels and a key. Actually I thought we looked like complete newbies cause I didn't even know how to tell her that I wanted "per entry" at first. After paying, I went inside, totally not knowing where is the locker and what to do etc. But well we did figure it out. There were a bunch of lockers outside the toilet so we wanted to change into our gear before locking things up. After walking back and forth the one and only toilet which says "for EnergyOne members only", we decided that it's the only toilet and we have to go in either way. Inside, we realised that yeah that was really THE toilet. There were larger lockers which I supposed were meant to put our baggage and the lockers outside were meant for things like water bottles. The shower cubicles and steam room was inside the toilet in another room as well.

For the gym, I did my regular sets, mainly with the dumbbells. There were quite a bit of dumbbells available, ranging from 1kg to 10 kg in intervals of 1kg, as well as 12,14kg dumbbells etc. However I must say that the space for the dumbbells and in between the machines were pretty small. The dumbbells section was like half the size of Sengkang Gym's. Overall, I wasn't impressed with the gym.

Then we decided to head for the pool. For me, I really only wanted to try out the jacuzzi. Surprisingly, there was a warm water jacuzzi right outside the exit of the gym. I really enjoyed it, the temperature is just right, though the jets were a little low for my liking. Too bad, Tsun Wang says its too hot (what nonsense, hot is good), and it has a weird smell. So after a while we went to the normal pool's jacuzzi. The jets were strong, the pool's scenery was good. Unfortunately I was all out of strength by then and couldn't swim no more.

The last part was the steam room. I really thought I will be able to take it, but I was so wrong. The heat wasn't that bad, but breathing in all the steam was intolerable. I threw in the white flag after 5 mins. There was this weird old guy talking to us inside. He asked us where we came from, what were we doing then (like, just ORDed yada yada). So I told him, I was from a SIR unit. And guess what he said?

"真的吗?你不像是个会吃苦的人"

roughly translated to "really? you don't look like someone who can take a tough life"

I went "HUH!?".

Sidetrack, but hello? My unit is not just any SIR unit. I bet you my life was hell and I pulled through just fine. And I didn't eat snakes most of the time, if you know what I mean.

Frankly the steam room was great, though I guess the enjoyment of a steam room has to be cultivated. Anyways then we went out and into the showers. The showers were warm too! There's free soap provided as well.

Overall, Yishun Safra felt a little CMI (cannot-make-it) in terms of appearance but its facilities were decent. Good things I experienced were the warm jacuzzi and the warm shower. Many people may say that it's not worth the money. I guess I won't go there regularly, but a nice treat to jacuzzi once in a while should be good.

Take note though, you only get to use these facilities if you pay for the gym. If you go to the pool only (which is free for Safra members), you only get to use the pool and the cold pool jacuzzi.

Tech Speak: Image Swirl

Google just came out with a beta image search function called the Google Image Swirl. It has a pretty interesting interface. Looks like cool stuff from Google again.

Note: Demo only apparently, not everything can be searched. So far I've tried the Esplanade, lightning, rain (it actually showed a series of Korean or is it Jap artiste Rain's photos as well), and Starcraft II

Sights And Sounds: It's The Flooding Time Of The Year

It's raining. It's been wet. It's Singapore's so called Autumn season. It's irritating.

It's making me wet. Literally.

The bus stop is totally wet...

Look at the water gushing out from the drain

It looks like darkness is consuming the sky...

Brain Storm: Those Words Which Inspire Me

I was ransacking my drawers when I found my Student's Handbook. (like eww, student's handbook? you think you're only 13?) It's kind of like binder and there's a few pages of inspiring stories and the likes. There's this poem thing-y which I really kind of like. I moved it to the back of the handbook so that everyday when I pick it up, it'll remind me not to give up. Kind of cliche but well...

Here goes.

If You Think >>>

If you think you are beaten, you are.

If you think you dare not, you don't!

If you like to win, but think you can't,

It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lost, you're lost;

For out in the world we find

Success begins with a fellow's will;

It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,

You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger and faster man,

But sooner or later the man who wins

Is the man who thinks he can.

Tech Speak: Mother Of All WiMo Phones - HD2

HTC HD2 (otherwise known as HTC Leo if I'm not mistaken), will be the new queen of all Windows Mobile phone. Sporting a massive 4.3inch screen, HD2 will be as big as the screen of your PSP. Not only that, HD2 will be sporting the renowned speed demon Qualcomm Snapdragon chip of 1GHz. Below is a video from www.pocketnow.com . Be wow-ed.

Food: Kuishinbo Dinner

When it comes to buffet, nothing beats Kuishinbo. For my ORD celebration with my gang, we decided to give it a good one. Man, in order to eat as much as I can, I even starved myself for 12 hours. I tried to book the table for Saturday on Friday but it was already fully booked, so we had to change it to Sunday.

If you read reviews from www.hungrygowhere.com , you'll realise that most people don't praise it so much. If anything, it's the hokkaido crabs that's worth it. Personally I think there's much more to Kuishinbo than just those, though those are definitely the best. I love the deep fried stuff and sashimi as well. The green tea ice cream taste very much like Starbucks' green tea frap so that'll give me a quick fix on my green tea crave. There's not much of a variety there but hey, everything's decently good, with an amount of above average delicacies around too. If the crabs and these food aren't good enough reasons, then at least Kuishinbo adds some life into dining by having a periodical special and announcing it with their cute "bom bom, 123, we are Kuishinbo~" music. When everyone hears that, they sprint to the counter, to queue up for a special treat that's not usually served. This time we got cheese lobster and iced strawberry with ice cream inside.

Gosh, can't wait to go again. But its a 50 bucks damage to my wallet everytime...

first time i see them serve dorayaki!

that's my favorite soft shell crab

too bad they don't serve mushroom kaminabe today, but I tried beef kaminabe for the first time. didn't try the chicken one though.

Ramblings: Nothing Done

Holy shit. 1 year and 10 months have passed. Then 2 days. Yet not much has been done. I keep yapping at myself to get certain things done, keep telling myself to try certain stuff, but the inner laziness never got down to do them.

I wanted to train more intensively for the marathon by running 10km everyday and more on weekends.

I wanted to pick up japanese from Shaun and Joshua.

I wanted to revise and pick up guitar again from Chi Weng.

I wanted to have more tuition by the time I ORD.

I wanted to start roller blading again.

I wanted to get my resume done up and proper.

I wanted to take out all my wisdom teeth.

I wanted to tidy up my computer content as well as bookmarks.

I wanted to get that Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children jigsaw done.

I wanted to switch back to my original music genre before ORD.

I wanted to revamp my blog to increase view counts.

I wanted to re-do my Google Contacts list so that I can synchronise with my handphone when I get it.

I wanted to watch a lot a lot of movies.

I wanted to pack all my army stuff properly and reorganise my table.

The feeling of laziness plagues me as I have just ORD-ed. You know that feeling? I need to push start my life. Like, soon.

Brain Storm: The Water That Reflects My Body, Mind And Soul (Prologue)

I wonder what my bunk mates are doing now. Have all the people from the other bunk moved over? Are they intending to stay well over the lights out timing again? Are they chattering at my bed area like we always have for so many nights?

After 1 year and 10 months, it has finally ended. Few words can describe this moment. Yet there can never be enough said to understand it. I have ORD-ed. But my friends, they carry on. It might have ended for me, but not so for them. This is a utmost weird feeling. Weird, because I am supposed to be joyous, but I'm not. Weird, because there's a place I want to be, yet I don't want to be. I must say that I am happy. But all of us November ORD signallers, I trust, will say that we aren't as happy as what we want to be, not as happy as what our friends will feel when they ORD. I dare not say ORD is overrated, but I just am not as happy as what everyone say they will.

As I leave the camp, many thoughts fill my mind. I have left a huge part of my life behind. And the greatest impact is to know that they will continue the story, with or without us. When Shang Long and I shouted "ORD LO!!!" at the entrance of 1SIR, it was loud, it was solid, it was happy, but it was hollow. After we left the camp, I felt that I have left something back there. I muttered, "shit i think i left my *** in bunk, wait let me check." Then it was followed by a minute of frantic searching of all our personal belongings. After confirming that we had our stuff, we heaved a sigh of relief. But we both know that the most personal things that we left back there, was the bunk life, were our friends, but we can't go back and retrieve that.

I don't think a single blog post can contain all my reflections and my thoughts. Too many things happened, too many people made an impact in my life. The river had been unrelenting. Now, the water has stopped, the rain has cleared. I shall look into the still water, and retrace back my learning experience.

After giving our hugs to our friends, I quickly told Shang Long to leave the bunk, to head for the civilian world, before I stop and stay, before I do something really embarrassing. I never knew I would have wanted a moment to last a little longer, but I did. I had hope that it will last a while longer, even if it's just a little while longer...

Brain Storm: And Then Freedom...

It's only 8 days from now.

8 days later, I will wake up to find that Chi Weng is no longer beside me, and never will.

8 days later, the first thing I see when I sit up after waking up won't be See Kiat's tiny eyes.

8 days later, I won't have to tolerate noisy nights thanks to Ian anymore.

8 days later, I will be able to walk like a normal human from point to point.

8 days later, I won't have to give a f*** about rank and the likes.

8 days later, nobody will force me to do exercises but myself.

8 days later, I will have to pay for my every meal.

8 days later, I will be able to go for Starbucks every morning.

8 days later, I will no longer hear the lively and cheerful chatter in my bunk.

8 days later, I will no longer have anyone to bitch to, to bitch with.

8 days later, I can blast all my own personal music without having to care about others' taste.

8 days later, I will have internet access everyday.

8 days later, I will have no more beds to prostitute around.

8 days later, my food won't go missing and I won't be robbed of them.

8 days later, I will not have my usual toys (aka Chi Weng, Chee Yong etc) anymore.

8 days later, I will not feel obliged to mop my bunk floor all the time.

8 days later, I do not have to tolerate any weirdness and problematic attitude.

8 days later, I will not have to look at I-just-want-to-beat-them-up faces anymore.

8 days later, I will say goodbye to all my friends who have suffered with me, through thick and thin in these 2 years.

8 days later, I will step out of Mandai Hill Camp, look back, point my middle finger, and never look back again.

8 days later, I will only have memories to keep me company for a long time.

8 days later, I will only have tears to hold back when these times seem precious, if even a little.

8 days later, I will lose everything that I have at that time.

8 days later, I will regain back everything I have lost 2 years ago.

8 days later, I take back my time, my freedom and my pride.

8 days later, I ORD.